The in-vitro activities of the quinolones Bay 12-8039, gatifloxacin (AM 1155), trovafloxacin, clinafloxacin, levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin were compared. Gram-positive cocci were most susceptible to ...Bay 12-8039, clinafloxacin and trovafloxacin; Enterobacteriaceae and fastidious organisms were most susceptible to clinafloxacin corrected; Pseudomonas spp. were most susceptible to clinafloxacin and ciprofloxacin; anaerobes, Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacter jejuni were most susceptible to gatifloxacin, clinafloxacin and trovafloxacin. Against gram-positive cocci, the only agents that were more active than ciprofloxacin were those carrying an azabicyclo (trovafloxacin, Bay 12-8039), 3-amino-pyrrolidinyl (clinafloxacin) or 3-methyl-piperazinyl (gatifloxacin) moiety at position C7.
The primate cerebral cortex is characterized by regional variation in the structure of pyramidal neurons, with more complex dendritic arbors and greater spine density observed in prefrontal compared ...with sensory and motor cortices. Although there are several investigations in humans and other primates, virtually nothing is known about regional variation in the morphology of pyramidal neurons in the cerebral cortex of great apes, humans' closest living relatives. The current study uses the rapid Golgi stain to quantify the dendritic structure of layer III pyramidal neurons in 4 areas of the chimpanzee cerebral cortex: Primary somatosensory (area 3b), primary motor (area 4), prestriate visual (area 18), and prefrontal (area 10) cortex. Consistent with previous studies in humans and macaque monkeys, pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex of chimpanzees exhibit greater dendritic complexity than those in other cortical regions, suggesting that prefrontal cortical evolution in primates is characterized by increased potential for integrative connectivity. Compared with chimpanzees, the pyramidal neurons of humans had significantly longer and more branched dendritic arbors in all cortical regions.
We report on rates of patient retention and attrition in the context of scaling-up antiretroviral treatment (ART) within a district hospital and its primary health centres in rural Malawi. ...‘Retention’ was defined as being alive and on ART or transferred out, whereas ‘attrition’ was defined as died, lost to follow-up or stopped treatment. A total of 4074 patients were followed-up for 1803 person-years: 2904 were at the hospital and 1170 at health centres. Approximately 85% of patients were retained in care, both at hospital and health centres, with a retention rate per 100 person-years of 185 and 211, respectively adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 1.18, 95% CI 1.10–1.28,
P
=
0.001). Attrition rates per 100 person-years were similar: 33 and 36, respectively (adjusted HR 1.17, 95% CI 0.97–1.4,
P
=
0.1). At health centres the incidence of loss to follow-up was significantly lower than at the hospital (adjusted HR 0.24,
P
<
0.001, risk reduction 77%), but the rate of reported deaths was higher at health centres (adjusted HR 2.2, 95% CI 1.76–2.72,
P
<
0.001). As Malawi continues to extend the coverage (and equity) of ART, including in rural areas, attention is needed to reduce losses to follow-up at hospital level and reduce mortality at primary care level.
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) users have impaired verbal memory, and voxel-based morphometry has shown decreased grey matter in Brodmann area (BA) 18, 21 and 45. Because these regions play ...a role in verbal memory, we hypothesized that MDMA users would show altered brain activation in these areas during performance of a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task that probed semantic verbal memory. Polysubstance users enriched for MDMA exposure participated in a semantic memory encoding and recognition fMRI task that activated left BA 9, 18, 21/22 and 45. Primary outcomes were percent blood oxygen level-dependent signal change in left BA 9, 18, 21/22 and 45, accuracy and response time. During semantic recognition, lifetime MDMA use was associated with decreased activation in left BA 9, 18 and 21/22 but not 45. This was partly influenced by contributions from cannabis and cocaine use. MDMA exposure was not associated with accuracy or response time during the semantic recognition task. During semantic recognition, MDMA exposure was associated with reduced regional brain activation in regions mediating verbal memory. These findings partially overlap with previous structural evidence for reduced grey matter in MDMA users and may, in part, explain the consistent verbal memory impairments observed in other studies of MDMA users.
Summary We describe a nosocomial outbreak of extended-spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Serratia marcescens in a Bulgarian university hospital affecting nine patients on four wards. Phenotypic ...and genotypic (plasmid profile, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis) analysis of the isolates indicated a single clone. The epidemic strain was resistant to oxyimino β-lactams, aztreonam, aminoglycosides, tetracycline and chloramphenicol. It produced CTX-M-3 ESBL as demonstrated by isoelectric focusing, CTX-M PCR-RFLP and gene sequencing. The isolate was also found in the environment and from a nurse's hands, suggesting transmission by staff handling. The outbreak was controlled by patient isolation and intensified hand washing. This is the first report from Bulgaria describing a hospital outbreak caused by CTX-M-3 ESBL-producing S. marcescens.
With its repeated waves of infection and a high death toll in countries all over the world, the COVID-19 pandemic places the public health (PH) discipline at the centre of public attention. The ...pandemic threatens the health of individual citizens, higher-risk population groups and society as a whole. It threatens national and global economies. Thus, it is a crucial ethical requirement to activate all available resources of PH knowledge and skills, nationally as well as internationally, in response to the pandemic. Universities, Schools and Departments of Public Health (SPHs) hold important resources in terms of theoretical and practical competences. In order that PH professionals will have the competency profile necessary to deliver the Essential Public Health Operations (EPHOs) to combat health threats, including pandemics, the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) has developed competency systems and lists for the PH workforce as well as for the academic knowledge and skills foundation of PH in its broadest sense. Consequently, the membership of ASPHER represents a substantial resource of PH knowledge and skills, enabling the SPHs to play a critical role also in the COVID-19 pandemic. To develop the knowledge and skills competency resource further, ASPHER however set up a COVID-19 Task Force to describe and analyse the many-sided dynamic challenges, which the pandemic presents to society and thus to the role of PH institutions and professionals. Under normal circumstances, the central roles of the SPHs are teaching and research and, to a more limited extent, health communication to the public and giving advice to society's decision-makers. The question is, however, whether and to what extent these crucial resources actually are activated across the walls of the schools during the present pandemic. To throw light on this, the Task Force performed a survey on the actual, concrete role of ASPHER's members in the pandemic during 2020. Half of the members (59 SPHs) completed the survey questionnaire. Among respondents, eight out ten had been involved in consultancy and giving advice to national, regional and/or local decision-makers. A similar proportion was involved both in COVID-19 related teaching and health communication to the public and in COVID-19 related research. Thus, the study demonstrated an outstanding potential to deliver crucial knowledge and skills to support the governance and the PH systems necessary to combat COVID-19 now and in the future. Accordingly, the main objective of the present panel discussion is to illustrate, how SPHs in four countries - France, Israel, Lithuania, Portugal - responded concretely to the COVID-19 pandemic through 2020, scrutinising the schools' interaction with national, regional and local decision-makers during the pandemic's development within the countries and across borders.
Speakers/Panelists
Laurent Chambaud
École des Hautes Études en Santé Publique, Rennes, France
Nadav Davidovitch
Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, Beer Sheva, Israel
Ramune Kalediene
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
Henrique Barros
Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
Key messages
SPHs have got concrete potential to deliver crucial knowledge and skills to support both national governance and the public health systems necessary to combat COVID-19.
The SPHs followed basic ethical rules and engaged in concrete anti-COVID-19 activities.
PDF
